Mechina - Bellum Interruptum (2025)^{Release ID: 58569}

Ladies and gentlemen, Mechina has broken the monotone with new and returning changes! Their new album Bellum Interruptum has not reached the glory of the second half of the 2010s, but it's coming close to that peak...

First of all, we finally have more of the growls than just one or two tracks, and they come from the fierce Dave Lowmiller of A Dark Halo. He ended up replacing longtime clean/harsh vocalist David Holch who left the band after 20 years, following his few-year fadeout. Lowmiller has his own fantastic vocals going on. And we have other guests returning including harsh vocalist Anna Hel, clean vocalist "Treasur'" Necole Wright, and guitar soloist Dean Paul Arnold, plus one special guest in the finale.

"Cruelty is the Point" throws back to the Venator era nicely with the serene vocals of Mel Rose. Also I didn't notice this initially but I realized the first minute of its opening track sounds practically similar to that of the RichaadEB/Cristina Vee cover of "Bad Apple!!" When that first verse hits, I almost feel like singing "Ever on and on, I continue circling, with nothing but my hate and the carousel of agony..." "The Plague Pit" is my favorite track of the first third of the album, a powerful djenty banger reminiscent of a futuristic Arch Enemy with the crushing growls of Anna Hel. A true sci-fi war anthem! "The Wasteful Energy of Words" is a duet between Mel Rose and Dave Lowmiller, having h*ll of a lot of momentum.

The title track is my favorite track of this entire album, one of the best Mechina tracks I've heard in ages, a 10-minute epic that includes a spine-chillingly beautiful two-minute bridge in the middle. The incredible "On the Wings of Vecterra" comes close to surpassing the previous track, and the female vocals here are mostly from "Treasur'" Necole Wright who previously guest appeared in Venator's "Totemic", plus some wild shredding soloing by Dean Paul Arnold. "Invictus Thales" makes me think of Xenon's "Thales" along with "Invictus" by Neurotech in the title, but the song itself is different from those two, adding in some more of Dave Lowmiller's growls in duet with Mel Rose's cleans.

I'm glad they kept in the awesome pre-release single "When Honor Meant Something", and they remastered it too, making it much clearer than the single version and even adding in some narration at the end. "The Collapse Promised to All" is the shortest track of the album and actually the best one of the final third, with more of those cleans and growls. "The Overwhelming Harmony of Collective Suffering" is an earth-shattering finale, and the special final guest is Ricky Lewis with his higher-range growls.

The story of Mechina continues, both in the concept and the band's journey. I would put Bellum Interruptum at the top of the 4-star tier, with an 84% percentage rating. It has lots of changes, and there's more to hope for in the next album if Joe Tiberi and co. can keep it all up. This might just be a new era for Mechina and epic cyber metal....

Favorites: "The Plague Pit", "Bellum Interruptum", "On the Wings of Vecterra", "When Honor Meant Something", "The Collapse Promised to All"